H1- INTRODUCTION
To motivate and keeping your employees motivated in an organisation isn’t a sinecure. Motivating employees can offer you a lot of benefits, but the process is often hard to manage and understand. The work, the work environment and the needs and expectations of the employee, all have influence on the motivation of a person.
Communication in the motivation process has an important part. Both the communication with the supervisor as the communication with colleagues is of influence on the motivation of the employee. Which influence communication has on motivating employees is explained in this essay. This will be done on basis of the following research question; “Which influence has communication on motivating employees?”
To answer this question we will begin with a common theoretical part of motivation and work motivation. Next we will research which influence communication has on motivation of employees.
H2 – THEORETICAL PART
2.1 MOTIVATION AND WORK MOTIVATION
The first attempts to understand the human motivation is dating of the old Greek philosophers. Motivation was centuries a philosophical affair, since the end of the nineteenth century the research area transferred to the science of psychology. Behaviour first was known as something rational, next as results of instinct and after that as results of certain ‘drivers’ with as most important thought that behaviour is determined by rewards got by certain behaviour.
Figure 1 Motivation diagram (Dankeers-Van der Spek, 2010)
Motivation is for sure not the easiest theory to summarise. Motivation is a wide subject and hard to measure. The schedule above can perhaps give some insights in the motivation process.
One of the most important parts in development of motivation theories is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow claimed that people try to fulfil their physical needs, safety needs, and belongingness and love needs. Only if all those needs are met, the higher hierarchical can be fulfilled, namely as; the esteem needs and self-actualization needs. There is no point in starting in the higher hierarchical level, as the needs on a lower hierarchical level aren’t fulfilled. The most important thing is to acknowledge the needs. (Latham & Pinder, 2005)
One of the first important researches in work motivation is the one of McGregor. Following McGregor’s X and Y theory, motivation is dependent on the vision that the leader has on motivation. In short, these theories have the following elements:
Theory X
– Employees are lazy, work as less as possible, have a low ambition and dislike responsibilities and prefer to be managed by other people;
– Employees are egocentric and indifferent to relative to needs and goals of the organization and dislike changes;
– Employees have to be instructed and controlled sharply;
– Motivating employees happens by fulfilling the physical and safety needs.
Theory Y
– Employees aren’t passive, but are made to this in the way they are treated in an organisation;
– Employees want to have responsibilities and want to evolve;
– Motivating employees happens by fulfilling the belongingness and love needs.
A lot of supervisors use theory X, but better is it following McGregor – and to a certain extant Maslow as well – to use theory Y. Motivation is following this theory usable on the working environment as on the direct work. (Pinder, 1998)
Someone who disagreed with the last statement was Herzberg. Herzberg saw a difference between ‘satisfiers’ and ‘dissatisfies’. With his Two-factor theory he argued that motivation is mainly dependent on the intrinsic challenge of the job tasks. Also the possibilities for the employee to identify with the job and the ability to make a significant contribution, influence motivation. This states that the factors which determine the working environment, also known as hygiene factors, have less influence on the motivation. (Steers, Mowday, & Sharpiro, 2004)
Vroom emphasizes the importance of both the intrinsic challenges as the environmental factors. He pointed out that the expectations of employees are of influence on the motivation. How attractive the tasks looks and how much effort is being put in is determined on the expectations of the employee if accomplishing the task leads to the valued outcomes. On the score of the expectations, an employee decides how much effort to put in. Those expectations lead to achievements and outcomes. (Pinder, 1998) (Steers, Mowday, & Sharpiro, 2004) (Rollinson, 2002)
To set and try to fulfil goals by employees is as an indirect motivation tool is of great value. Like Bandura said, only the making part of goals is already enough to upgrade the motivation. In addition the goals needs to meet a couple of conditions, to be of positive influence on employee’ motivation;
– Goals have to be clear;
– Goals have to be accepted;
– Goals may be difficult, but not impossible;
– The organization must give feedback on the objectives at the right times.
(Pinder, 1998) (Steers, Mowday, & Sharpiro, 2004) (Latham & Pinder, 2005)
Two conditions are important to keep work motivating for employees following Deci. First of all there has to be a certain level of autonomy has to be in the work. Secondly the employee has to be able to do his work. His competences have to be sufficient to be able to fulfil his task. When both of these conditions are met, the employee should be motivated to keep on working. . (Deci, 1975) (Steers, Mowday, & Sharpiro, 2004)
Previous theories are mainly developed in the golden century of the work motivation theories; in the 60’s and 70’s of last century. Ever since a lot of research is being done on work motivation, but there are few breakthrough theories developed. (Steers, Mowday, & Sharpiro, 2004)
2.2 COMMUNICATION AND WORK MOTIVATION
From the above is the following seen regarding work motivation and communication for now. Supervisors have to be aware of the needs and expectations of employees regarding their jobs. Understanding, recognition and respect regarding the needs and expectations of employees is important to keep them motivated. This is possible via having different appraisal interviews. One keyword for the entire process of work motivation is ‘feedback’. In the most theories used above feedback is seen as an important element that, provided that insert in the correct way, can shape a way to influence motivation of employees.
Let’s start by looking at the non-communication. If employees can’t communicate about their work, it can have different consequences. (Pinder, 1998) Perception and interpretation causes differences between employees and supervisors or between employees. (Kor, 1999) One situation can cause different people being perceived and interpreted in different ways. When the employee is happy, the supervisor can understand that out of the non-communication of the employee. But, this doesn’t have to be the case. There can be more reasons why an employee isn’t of is barely speaking of his work. An employee can think is doesn’t make sense to talk about his dissatisfaction with his supervisor, or he thinks it is up to him. This kind of whist has as result that a supervisor not, or not enough knows about his employee’s needs, expectations and perception. When an employee isn’t speaking about certain feeling, – whether or not right – it can influence his motivation in a negative way. A third result is that the supervisor and other employees continue their irrational behaviour on the same level. Like said in the previous chapter behaviour is often the result of a rating of the past of the same behaviour. If a supervisor or employee is showing weird or irrational behaviour, it isn’t going to change unless someone is communicating with the person about his behaviour.
Not communicating about work or behaviour can cause misunderstanding with people in the environment of the employee. Non-communication has a direct (by not sharing your feelings) and indirect (by supervisors or colleagues not knowing about your needs, expectations or perception) effect on the motivation of employees. Other way around an employee can get demotivated if the people in his environment, colleagues or supervisor, don’t communicate about their work and work situation. With lack of feedback on certain tasks and shown behaviour, an employee can get a wrong view of his delivered performance.
With this saying it doesn’t mean that when there actually is shown communication in an organisation, this will have a positive influence on the working motivation. Communication has influence on motivation, which is clear so far.
Communication between employees can influence motivation in a strong way. In the scientific literature of the last two decennia, it came up with a new understanding; Appreciative Inquiry (Coopperrider, Whitney, & Stavros, 2004). Briefly said this means that people have to talk about the subjects which are going right in an organisation. At the moment they relive the good organisation processes, they start to get enthusiastic and try to reproduce tis in the future. So, this has a strong positive effect on the work motivation.
When we are talking about communication between employer and employee, we make a distinction between two kinds of communication. At first it is the employee who is communicating about his job and his working situation to his supervisor. At second the supervisor is giving the employee feedback of his work, performances and working situation. As we could see in the non-communication, perception and interpretation give different views between employee and supervisor concerning certain situations. Communicating about certain situations can bring the perception of both closer to each other. To express dissatisfaction by an employee for example, can change the perception of the supervisor in a different way. (Kor, 1999)
So communication can give (renewed) insights in the needs and expectations of the employee. The distinctness giving this way, can increase the employees motivation, by a supervisor knowing how to deal with the needs and expectations of the employee and the employee gets the feeling to be better understood.
The communication of the supervisor to the employee has also a big influence on the motivation of the employee. A supervisor needs to give his employees insight in his work. This feedback is important to correct or confirm the employee’s perception on his work. Feedback is important, but has to be delivered in certain amounts. Too much feedback can affect the feeling of autonomy. This has to be prevented because autonomy is an important condition of motivation. In this way it’s shown that communication by definition doesn’t has to be on a positive influence on the work motivation. (Kor, 1999) (Deci, 1975)
Also the expectations of an employee can be adjusted by giving feedback. This is why it is mandatory for an employer to give insights on the employee’s development opportunities. The employer also has to give the employee clarity in which way change – like acquisition or reorganization – in the organisation (can) have effect on the employee’s position.
From the above can be deduced that communication between employees and between an employee and management is required to reduce differences in perception and interpretation of certain work situations and circumstances. Communication can give a supervisor insight in the needs and expectations of the employee and can be adjusted by the employee if necessary. So communication is a necessary medium for employees and employers to stay close to each other and keeping the motivation on a certain level.
H3 – CONCLUSION
In this essay is about work motivation and the part communication has in it. The research question which was asked in the beginning was; “Which influence has communication on motivating employees?”
To answer this question, we looked at some theory about work motivation. There isn’t a clear theory concerning work motivation. The basis for motivation and work motivation is the Needs Hierarchy of Maslow. Both the tasks as the environmental factors can have an influence on the employee’s motivation. Setting goals and good ‘incentives’ are a good way to start working motivated. The most important conditions for motivation in the working environment are autonomy and the competences of the employee.
The part communication is playing in the working motivation process is big. When there is no communication about subjects work related to the employee, a lot of uncertainties and frustrations can arise. In that way imbalances arise and they employee can get demotivated.
Communication is important to lower the differences in perception and interpretation between employee, supervisor and colleagues. An employee has to communicate about his needs and expectations. A supervisor has to anticipate on the obtained information by correct or confirm the expectations. Provided that the feedback is delivered in certain amounts, feedback is a necessary medium to keeping the employee’s perception real.
Maintaining or increasing employee motivation can certainly be accomplished through communication. The difference in perspective and interpretation can be lowered with a good level of communication. In that way employees keep and become motivated and are able to achieve more objectives in the organisation.